Shiny_pretty_things
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2016
- Messages
- 41
I appreciate those few who responded to me and courteously - thank you. No response from the original poster though I see- I suppose thats one way to deal with dissenting views.
I have seriously debated posting this and I really hope I don't regret it but I realise that the reason this is so much on my mind (and that of my family and friends) is because we don’t understand why anyone would vote for someone who seems to be so patently a bad man - a man who in many ways embodies the worst of humanity rather than the best. And make no mistake, many countries elect bad men and mine is one of them. The difference here is how powerful your country is and how much the decisions that you make impact the rest of the world whether we like it or not.
So I thought it best to ask you, as Americans and especially the people who voted for your president elect for some clarification rather than making assumptions. Let make this clear, this is not me asking for you to justify yourself, simply asking for clarification for myself, my friends, family and co-workers who truly do not understand. You obviously don’t have to answer me, he is your president elect after all but surely clarity and reason are always good things, particularly in a time of change and I would appreciate reasoned polite responses if you're up for answering me.
I have noted a few things:
When people post the issues that they have with the president elect, responders often refer to past presidents wrong doing - please don’t do that if you’re good enough to answer me, as that doesnt actually address the issue raised. Two wrongs don’t make a right and saying that yes this is wrong but someone else did this wrong, doesn't address the initial wrong or clarify why people are okay with it.
Despite the fact that people who didn’t voted for the president elect often seeming to acknowledge that they didn’t realise how much pain half the country was in, those who support the president elect, don't seem to have acknowledged the pain and fear of those who did not support him. I see a lot of posts saying 'I’m sorry you feel that way' but no posts saying, 'I empathise, I understand'. I see a lot of 'Well, this is where we are now' and 'lets get on with it' and some fairly patronising posts about how people should deal with distraught children but I am still waiting for the posts acknowledging the pain and fear that so much of the population seem to be in at present. Am I totally misunderstanding this?
Electoral Colleges. I don’t understand this. Does this mean that some peoples' votes are worth more than other peoples? Over 200 000 people preferred HRC, but she still lost? How does that work?
Why is no one concerned that the president elect didn’t even know which way Scotland voted in Brexit - and he was visiting the country? The leader of one of the most powerful nations in the world needs to know what is happening in the rest of the world - and there really aren’t that many countries that make up the UK (4) so not a lot to remember.
Part of the problem here seems to be weighting. We all apply different weights to issues - i.e., those issues with a higher weighting have more value to us than the issues we assign a lower weight too. For the vast majority of us, certain things have a higher weighting at all times, and that doesn't change regardless of circumstance. For example, racism, xenophobia, being a sexual predator, laughing at disabled people.
But it seems that those who voted for the president elect don’t assign a very high weighting to these issues - something I have to admit, I have a problem with. These are not moving targets, they are absolutes - they are just bad things, they don’t become okay things, if other factors are thrown into the mix. So to clarify, does this mean that if someone offers jobs or security etc ( however specious those offers may be), the weighting on these issues changes and gets less and they become irrelevant to voters? One of the commenters, I think referred to these being social issues. I don’t understand that. They are actual issues, that impact real people and the fact that they don’t impact you personally does not make them of less value or importance.
What I think confuses so many of us out here, is the idea that people can say, I don’t like these things and i’m not racist etc but I choose to ignore these areas and focus on others and I’m offended that you think I am racist and okay with a sexual predator. Well I’m afraid that a person who is bad , is bad no matter if some of the time, they say good things or things you want to hear. You can’t pick and choose and if you support them, then you support the entirety of them - the good and the bad. Which is fine if it doesn’t impact you, but to those it does (POC, disabled people, Muslims, Jews) , it must feel like a slap in the face. I would imagine that they feel that you’ve told them they lack value and that respecting them and their safety is of less importance to you because these things simply don’t impact you. Unlike you, they don’t get to ignore these facets of the president elect as they are directly impacted by them.
If this is not at all about racism in any way, then how is it that the vast majority of supporters are white and straight? Clearly they felt spoken to in a way other voters didn’t?
Please forgive me, if I sound blunt, text does not carry tone well and I really am seeking clarification and trying to get my points across clearly.
Like many I am scared of the direction the world is going in at present and the posts I read by parents of special needs children last night fearing the future for their children under your president elect, were very sad. Who will defend these children now?
I have seriously debated posting this and I really hope I don't regret it but I realise that the reason this is so much on my mind (and that of my family and friends) is because we don’t understand why anyone would vote for someone who seems to be so patently a bad man - a man who in many ways embodies the worst of humanity rather than the best. And make no mistake, many countries elect bad men and mine is one of them. The difference here is how powerful your country is and how much the decisions that you make impact the rest of the world whether we like it or not.
So I thought it best to ask you, as Americans and especially the people who voted for your president elect for some clarification rather than making assumptions. Let make this clear, this is not me asking for you to justify yourself, simply asking for clarification for myself, my friends, family and co-workers who truly do not understand. You obviously don’t have to answer me, he is your president elect after all but surely clarity and reason are always good things, particularly in a time of change and I would appreciate reasoned polite responses if you're up for answering me.
I have noted a few things:
When people post the issues that they have with the president elect, responders often refer to past presidents wrong doing - please don’t do that if you’re good enough to answer me, as that doesnt actually address the issue raised. Two wrongs don’t make a right and saying that yes this is wrong but someone else did this wrong, doesn't address the initial wrong or clarify why people are okay with it.
Despite the fact that people who didn’t voted for the president elect often seeming to acknowledge that they didn’t realise how much pain half the country was in, those who support the president elect, don't seem to have acknowledged the pain and fear of those who did not support him. I see a lot of posts saying 'I’m sorry you feel that way' but no posts saying, 'I empathise, I understand'. I see a lot of 'Well, this is where we are now' and 'lets get on with it' and some fairly patronising posts about how people should deal with distraught children but I am still waiting for the posts acknowledging the pain and fear that so much of the population seem to be in at present. Am I totally misunderstanding this?
Electoral Colleges. I don’t understand this. Does this mean that some peoples' votes are worth more than other peoples? Over 200 000 people preferred HRC, but she still lost? How does that work?
Why is no one concerned that the president elect didn’t even know which way Scotland voted in Brexit - and he was visiting the country? The leader of one of the most powerful nations in the world needs to know what is happening in the rest of the world - and there really aren’t that many countries that make up the UK (4) so not a lot to remember.
Part of the problem here seems to be weighting. We all apply different weights to issues - i.e., those issues with a higher weighting have more value to us than the issues we assign a lower weight too. For the vast majority of us, certain things have a higher weighting at all times, and that doesn't change regardless of circumstance. For example, racism, xenophobia, being a sexual predator, laughing at disabled people.
But it seems that those who voted for the president elect don’t assign a very high weighting to these issues - something I have to admit, I have a problem with. These are not moving targets, they are absolutes - they are just bad things, they don’t become okay things, if other factors are thrown into the mix. So to clarify, does this mean that if someone offers jobs or security etc ( however specious those offers may be), the weighting on these issues changes and gets less and they become irrelevant to voters? One of the commenters, I think referred to these being social issues. I don’t understand that. They are actual issues, that impact real people and the fact that they don’t impact you personally does not make them of less value or importance.
What I think confuses so many of us out here, is the idea that people can say, I don’t like these things and i’m not racist etc but I choose to ignore these areas and focus on others and I’m offended that you think I am racist and okay with a sexual predator. Well I’m afraid that a person who is bad , is bad no matter if some of the time, they say good things or things you want to hear. You can’t pick and choose and if you support them, then you support the entirety of them - the good and the bad. Which is fine if it doesn’t impact you, but to those it does (POC, disabled people, Muslims, Jews) , it must feel like a slap in the face. I would imagine that they feel that you’ve told them they lack value and that respecting them and their safety is of less importance to you because these things simply don’t impact you. Unlike you, they don’t get to ignore these facets of the president elect as they are directly impacted by them.
If this is not at all about racism in any way, then how is it that the vast majority of supporters are white and straight? Clearly they felt spoken to in a way other voters didn’t?
Please forgive me, if I sound blunt, text does not carry tone well and I really am seeking clarification and trying to get my points across clearly.
Like many I am scared of the direction the world is going in at present and the posts I read by parents of special needs children last night fearing the future for their children under your president elect, were very sad. Who will defend these children now?